All posts tagged Tucson Shooting

With her constituents still reeling from the attack on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at a public forum in Tucson Saturday, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer tore up her plans to talk tax reform at Monday’s State of the State address.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Gov. Brewer promised the assembled legislators and citizens that she would come back soon to talk about the state’s economic future.

“But not now,” she said. “Not today.”

Instead, the Republican governor turned her speech toward the rampage that left Democratic Rep. Giffords gravely wounded, injured 13 others and killed six. The man accused of the shooting, Jared Lee Loughner, made his first appearance in federal court Monday but did not enter a plea. He faces charges that could draw the death penalty.

In her somber speech, Ms. Brewer did not address divisive issues such as gun control or partisan political rhetoric. She focused instead on the “tragedy and terror” that she said struck at a moment that represented “what our country is all about: public servants doing their duty, citizens, old and young, coming to hear — coming to participate — in the beauty of our government in action.”

The governor paid tribute to the victims, including Ms. Giffords, whom she called “my good friend.” She introduced college student Daniel Hernandez, an intern with Ms. Giffords’s office who is credited with helping the congresswoman before paramedics arrived — propping her upright, staunching the blood from the bullet wound in her head, talking to her, squeezing her hand. Mr. Hernandez, the governor said, “likely saved her life.”

Amid calls on both the right and left for Sarah Palin to speak out about the Tucson shooting, a comment of sorts has emerged—via Glenn Beck.

Sarah Palin (Photo by Allison Shelley/Getty Images)

On his radio program Monday, the conservative talk-show host told his viewers about an email exchange he had Sunday with the former Alaska governor and potential 2012 presidential candidate, who has faced criticism for a map she posted last year that used cross hairs to identify 20 Democratic lawmakers she wanted to see ousted from office in the November election.

One of the lawmakers singled out on the map was Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Democrat who was severely wounded in the Saturday shooting, which left six dead and 13 others injured.

In his radio program, Mr. Beck recounted how Ms. Palin emailed him to ask how he was doing. He then sent a note back.

“Sarah, as you know, peace is always the answer,” he said he wrote in his email to her. “I know you’re feeling the same heat — if not much more — on this. I want you to know you have my support. But please look into protection for your family. An attempt on you could bring the republic down.”

He then recommends a personal-security company run by a man in Los Angeles. “He is the guy that protects me. They are, bar none, the best. There are nut jobs on all sides.”… Read More »

The Supreme Court heeded the president’s call for a moment of silence to honor the victims of the Tucson, Ariz., shooting, convening 10 minutes before its normal 10 a.m. opening to ensure its first scheduled argument would conclude in time to participate.

The “senseless shooting on Saturday caused devastating injury to persons who all, in their own way, contribute to the strength of our nation,” Chief Justice John Roberts told the courtroom as the day’s proceedings began. The six killed included John Roll, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for Arizona, who Chief Justice Roberts recalled as “a dedicated member of the federal judiciary.”

Moments before 11 a.m., Jonathan Hacker, an attorney defending the makers of Zicam from allegations that they withheld from investors reports that the cold remedy caused anosmia—or the loss of the sense of smell—wrapped up his rebuttal argument. Chief Justice Roberts then invited all present to join in the moment of silence, and for nearly a minute the full courtroom, normally filled with whispered conversation at breaks in the back and forth of oral argument, was completely still.

The court then turned to its next case, a dispute between Montana and Wyoming over irrigation rights to the Tongue and Powder rivers, which traverse both states. Read More »

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